Unemployment rate should drop to zero in country: Ahmadinejad

Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Sunday that the unemployment rate in the country should drop to zero and stressed that major projects should be carried out in Iran, IRNA reported. According to the report, the president made the remark during a ceremony to introduce the new Minister of Cooperation, Labour and Social Welfare Abdolreza Sheikholeslami. Announcing that the government created 1.6 million jobs in the country last year, he said the cabinet is working to offer 2.5 million job opportunities during the current and the next year. Turning to international issues, he focused on famine and extreme poverty prevailing the world today and said official figures show that over three billion people in the world are living in poverty of whom over 1,200 million are suffering from extreme poverty. The Iranian president further criticized the act of those who step over all human values and dignity for the sake of their own benefits and plunder resources of the nations. Ahmadinejad further said the current situation in Somalia was a disgrace for those who claimed could manage the world affairs.